A Hellenist's review of Natalie Haynes' Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths (Pandora the first woman ever)
Hello everyone The first chapter is the eponymous Pandora, she is famous for giving us the idiom "Pandora's Box" but as Haynes pointed out, it was not a box, but a jar or vase. The story of Pandora comes from Hesiod's works appearing both in Theogony and more detailed in Works and Days . The famous Pandora's box is indeed a πίθος (píthos) and it is like a barrel since it typically held liquid and was part of freight. Pandora is known as the first woman of Ancient Greek mythology, and Haynes herself makes a comparison to mythic story of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, which is already an often used comparison. Remember kids, the Bible is Christian Mythology too, as most religions have mythologies. The way this story is told is that Pandora opened her jar, either for curiosity or malice, and had released something evil and hardships, and Hesiod sets this after Prometheus steals Fire itself from the Gods, in particular Zeus. The story ends with her only finding hope in it